Jan. 20-26, 1963: Dr. Samuell’s legacy, and testing the shelters

This is a weekly snapshot by staff writer Joe Simnacher of what was happening in Dallas, the nation and the world the year President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

Dallas: Construction is expected to begin by month’s end on a tennis and recreation center at Tenison Park. The $500,000 center — with 12 courts — is part of Dr. W.W. Samuell’s endowment to the city. (The Samuell Grand Tennis Center now has 18 courts.)

Texas: Tennessee Williams gives UT-Austin his manuscripts. The playwright said he “has spent happy times” with Dallas’ Margo Jones, who helped launch his career. Jones staged several of his plays in Austin and Dallas, before they went to Broadway. Jones premiered Williams’ The Glass Menagerie at her theater in Fair Park.

Nation: More than 100 people are spending 36 hours underground in Livermore, Calif., to test the feasibility of living in a fallout shelter. Individuals, groups and cities are building the underground concrete structures in hope of surviving a nuclear attack.

World: Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev tells East German steel workers that as many as 120 Russian missiles are ready to be launched at the U.S. in case of war. “The American imperialists know that we withdrew 40 rockets from Cuba,” he tells workers in Eisenhuettenstadt. “But we have set up 80, probably even 120 rockets in other places.”